LowRange wrote:Judging by how spindly and whippy trout rods are I wonder if the Trickster UL has too much backbone. I use mine to target bass and other sunfish throwing fun UL baits for my own amusement.

If only the Fenwick Elite Tech River Runner had a casting model .... oh the possibilities. The UL spinning version is a joy to fish with. Fast action with plenty of backbone, but still a true UL stick in every sense. There is absolutely no noodle in this rod at all. It was developed as a trout rod, but it's capable of so much more. It would make a fantastic finesse caster.

Sounds similar to the UL Trickster. I was in Basspro the other day and none on the UL spinning rods had as soft and flexible a tip as the solid carbon tip found in the UL Trickster yet were noodly and wimpy by comparison. The STC-63UL is about true ultra light castability paired with BFS power.

LowRange wrote:
I love mine. It's a BFS rod and as such has an emphasis on power yet being an UL has a very sift tip. I'm curious about how it performs targeting tout. Judging by how spindly and whippy trout rods are I wonder if the Trickster UL has too much backbone. I use mine to target bass and other sunfish throwing fun UL baits for my own amusement.

The fishing has been good last few trips so I've had plenty of scenarios and fish to see how the rod performs. It is above and beyond anything I expected. It has softened up after some fish and casts great now. Since I fish almost exclusively single hook baits I had issues with hooksets and keeping fish pinned with tubular tip trout rods. It is a night and day difference with the solid tip now with hooking/landing fish. They stock some serious trout here and I was still getting plenty of fight from them with the rod but like you said it has the power to turn their heads when needed due to tight structure. I got half my fish on a 1.3g itty bit so the rod is great for light baits too. I've thrown down to .6g so far messing around. I'd say I now love mine too!

I finally got out to try your advice. Spooled up with some 4lb XT and hit the ponds. Reel is a PX68 w/ DIY spool and BFS Air Bearings, rod a Teton UL. With the spool tension set to a slow drop and the brake at 50% I could cast a 1/8oz inline spinner as far as my UL spinning combo and with the breaks backed off a little more I can throw it about a quarter again as far. One hand casting is effortless and smooth and was easy to get good accuracy. I was able to flick the lure through tiny gaps in the brush and trees along the bank. It is amazing the difference switching to mono from floro made. Thanks so much for the advice!

Now, for the bad part. My first backlash broke the line before I even tried to pick it out. Like when I looked at the spool I could see the two broken ends of line in the snarl. With the spool so shallow, this killed about a third of my line. I got myself sorted out and kept fishing. Then the same thing happened again, a backlash right at the end of my cast, but with the lure still in the air, and again the line broken in the snarl. Left with a single casting distance left, I had to really put my thumb to work and finished out the day with maybe 50-60' of line left on the spool. I ordered a 330y spool of 6lb XL to see if that will give me a little more strength but keep the distance and ease of casting. My only other issue with the mono is lure depth. I got used to sinking floro and need to rework my retrieve speeds to hit the various depths I want to keep my spinners at, but that should just be a matter of practice and observation.

In anycase, I know the combo can do what I want it to do, I just need to get my skill level up. I got a single trout and a handfull of small panfish and the rod was a hoot to land them with.

Once you get a feel for the spool you can always revert back to flurocarbon line. Once flurocarbon line has sat on the spool for a while it will take the memory of the spool and behave better than when it is freshly spooled and has the filler spool memory. Nanofill and Gliss are great BFS lines as well. #10 nanofill green works well with the DIY spools although you will have to tape it to prevent it from slipping. #10 green nanofill with a uni to uni to fluro works well. For some reason the green nanofill seems to have better knot stength than the white stuff. Seems a little less slick.

Also make sure you don't overfill the spool and create problems for yourself so leave a little bit of a gap at the rim of the spool. It is very easy to overfill these super shalow spools. I've done it twice and it bit me in the ass on the water causing me to backlash so bad I had to respool.

Oh man, it took two day-ending backlashs, but I did learn to back off on filling the spool.

Now that I know the system will work for me, I can just practice until I gain enough skill to hopefully make the backlashes less of an issue. I really had a blast with it and was amazed at how easy it was to cast accurately. I have one more spooling of 6lb Pline Floro left, so after this 330y spool of XL is done I hope to be skilled enough to make the Pline last for the rest of the season.

Build a casting rod on the same blank you use for finesse with a spinning rod. The blank don't care and neither will the fish. Been building casting rods for light stuff with 2 power spin jig blanks for over 20 years, they throw 1/8 - 3/8 oz. best just like they do spinning reels. My best and most enjoyable rods were built on the G Loomis SJ700 blanks when you could get them. North Fork Composite makes a similar blank.
The world class angler and trick caster Stan Fagerstrom used both the CR 721 casting rod and the SJR 700 spinning rods both in his shows and in the field they are phenominal rods.

I did a google translate on the Japanese websites, looks like this was about a $350 rod.

To bring back and old discussion ... I never found a reel that I liked on this rod. I ordered a Daiwa SS SV 103 JDM reel from the Tackle Warehouse sale. It showed up yesterday and I just got it mounted and spooled with some 10# Iron Athlete mono.

I had a fishing trip planned for today, of course its raining. I've got a spybait tied on, and am ready to go, hopefully tomorrow.

Raid Japan Gladiator technix cover technica
Raid Japan Gladiator technix Bounty killer
Raid Japan Gladiator technix Light feelips
Raid Japan Gladiator technix Operator ( customized from a spinning to a casting rod)
All rods are paired with the good ol‘ daiwa steez 103/100 hl and a megabass honeycomb spool.
All of these rods are solidtip rods and by far the best i have ever fished when it comes to jdm finesse rods.